>why do they sell Deluxe Tele Extenders like this from Amazon then?
A lot of useless stuff is sold out there on Amazon. Same reason why they sell those tiny, short refractors which would be horrific to look through, or why the Powerseekers exist.
> eyepiece projection
Eyepiece projection isn't ideal because as I mentioned before, there are additional elements of glass in your imaging train which will introduce a variety of aberrations unless they're well controlled. You really need high end eyepieces if you want to have sharpness across the whole frame - the picture in the article was using a Takahashi refractor, which is pretty much the best brand in the world. I can assure you that the quality of the eyepieces which came with your scope do not match up to those standards, and you won't really be able to make mosaics if your edges look ugly (which is why most people who do mosaics uses prime focus, maybe with a quality barlow lens). Like that article mentioned, using eyepiece projection will also dim the view and seeing will be more apparent.
> by changing focal length?
Can't change the focal length of your scope, because it's a fixed property of the mirror. The only way to change it is to literally refigure the mirror. The reason why you couldn't reach focus is because your scope isn't designed for photography, so the focal plane is located inside of the tube to allow you to use eyepieces without requiring an extension tube (the focal plane for an eyepiece and camera are different).
> It looks like the ones that I think turned out nice were shot at 1/800 shutter and 3200 ISO. Using 1/400 with ISO at 3200 made it a little darker
Don't use that high of an ISO - I'm not sure about the D3200 but most cameras will have a point where increasing ISO has no advantages other than destroying dynamic range - you won't be able to get those pretty colours, and you'll also be clipping some whites. Use a lower shutter speed too or better yet, record a video. I'll explain why later on.
> Which one do you suggest I start with? I will mainly be working on Moon pictures it sounds like, with the limits my telescope has.
Oh okay, thought you were trying to do DSO imaging. If so, then Autostakkert is fine, and you'll want something like Registax to do wavelet transformations.
> Don't people stack moon images?
You don't want to take individual photos - you'd ideally want to record a video and stack the individual frames, because you will get more frames easily (and your shutter will thank you), which makes stacking more effective and you'll improve your signal to noise ratio, and cancel out more atmospheric seeing. But you should only be doing this if your camera can record 1:1 video, or if you can record from live view, because otherwise your DSLR will downsample the video and it won't work as well. If you want to do planetary and lunar imaging, your best bet would be to use a webcam or dedicated planetary camera.
>Are the proper techniques a combination of dialing in the ISO, Shutterspeed, reducing the shake on the telescope, getting the focus perfect on the telescope, getting lucky with "seeing conditions", and then getting good at post-processing? What else?
Pretty much, though ideally you want to be recording a video instead of taking individual pictures like I mentioned before. You might want to join the r/AP discord too - it's really nice to be able to get instant answers and help when you need it.
> What do you mean by this exactly?
Attaching your camera on top of your telescope. Like this. But if you're just doing lunar photography then there's no need to unless you have a decent telephoto lens, and even then you don't need tracking for that.
Yea sorry auto correct got me and yea I’m using this
And by larger lens I used a 9mm eye piece should I go for maybe the 25mm
Wow! This is so extremely beyond helpful, thank you so much for taking the time to help me. I've basically used Reddit to learn everything about getting into Astrophotography. I live in a super dark area where I get amazing conditions for shooting and viewing. Hopefully, this thread will help other people too.
> First things foremost, you do not want to be using your eyepieces for DSLR astrophotography
Ok, interesting, why do they sell Deluxe Tele Extenders like this from Amazon then? This is the one I bought.
Furthermore, this space dot com article goes over eyepiece projection photography stating " The configuration will enable you to double or triple the image scale, depending on the focal length of the eyepiece used and the projection distance between the eyepiece and camera sensor."
I can totally return my Deluxe Tele Extender, but figured I could use it with my 6mm, 10mm, and 25mm eyepieces to take a bunch of pictures with my DSLR of the moon, stitch them together, and have a badass picture of the moon that you can zoom super far into for details of the craters, etc.
> All you should be using is a T-Ring and T-Adapter (unless there is already one built into your focuser), and likely a 2x Barlow in your case.
So I originally only bought the T Ring and T Adapter for "prime focus" pictures. However, when I hooked up my T Adapter to my scope, it wouldn't focus. I was reading something about how the distance for my particular scope is impossible to achieve to use my T Adapter unless I start messing around with some other setting on the scope itself (I think by changing focal length? Not sure, I can't remember?).
What does work fantastically, is hooking the T Ring to the camera and screwing in my 2x Barlow. This is where I played around with taking a bunch of moon pictures. I could never get the moon to be fully encapsulated in my shot, but I am going to mess around with stitching/stacking these images to see what I can get. But it's disappointing I can't get a more "zoomed out" picture of the moon, which I thought I could achieve with the T-Adapter. Like you said though, it must be due to the fact I am really trying to over use my scope since it's not designed for astrophotography.
> What settings did you use?
I was messing around with the moon and got some pictures of Venus too. I changed the ISO and shutter speed since you can't change the aperture (f/x) a ton to see which combination of those two worked the best. It looks like the ones that I think turned out nice were shot at 1/800 shutter and 3200 ISO. Using 1/400 with ISO at 3200 made it a little darker, but still looks pretty sweet!
> Don't use Autostakkert - it's not designed for DSO stacking.
Which one do you suggest I start with? I will mainly be working on Moon pictures it sounds like, with the limits my telescope has. Don't people stack moon images? For DSO photography, I think that it will take a little bit more time. I still haven't even just simply "viewed" much else other than the Moon and Venus yet.
> That will very most likely be the case, but only if you know the proper techniques.
Are the proper techniques a combination of dialing in the ISO, Shutterspeed, reducing the shake on the telescope, getting the focus perfect on the telescope, getting lucky with "seeing conditions", and then getting good at post-processing? What else?
> Have you considered just piggy backing your DSLR to your scope, and using the kit lens?
What do you mean by this exactly?
Thank you so much again for taking the time to help me on this, it's so much fun to get into.